Cow-orkers

what do your co-workers say on a daily or near-daily basis that just make you fume in your seat?

i rarely say anything, because it's useless to argue.

my #1 is the political rhetoric - when the convention was going on, they'd just go on and on about how much the democrats were wrong, and how they were so glad there werent any of THEM around THIS office.

i'm not a hardcore democrat, but i'm not a republican, and i wish they'd just keep their opinions to themselves, and especially not say things like how glad they were that the whole office was republican.

Well in general I'm in pain much of the time from hearing grammar mistakes and such, or mangled sayings. I have the misfortune of not only being in the middle of a cube jungle, but also having really good hearing. So I hear eeeeverything.

Aside from mangled speech, one of my neighbors always annoys me by talking about all her sex stories and just a lot of inappropriate stuff. Or at the very least, inappropriate at her volume. I hear every darn story of hers and how horny she is and she's a row away and not talking to me.

gah!� i dont get sex stories, but i work in an all male department, and being the only female, sometimes i hear things i probably shouldn't.

as far as grammar mistakes... man, do i ever hear that. this one guy always says "ideal" instead of "idea." i'm not kidding. he goes "so i had this ideal, where we could use that bit to determine.." or "dude, i had this great ideal last night.." "that's a good ideal!" ...and so on.

"idear" always�gets me.

"idear" i at least understand, being a twang added to the word.

..IDEAL IS A DIFFERENT FREAKING WORD WITH A DIFFERENT FREAKING MEANING!

Obviously the cow-orker learned english from a New Yorker and someone from China. The New York influence adds the "R" to the end of the word and the chinese transforms it into an "L."

okay. got a better one:

my lame-ass, pretentious ex always used to say "contrite" instead of "trite".

he thought he sounded very smart.

That is so trite he should be contrite.

Well it isn't easy being green.

Do I have the right ex?

I absolutely adore my cow-orkers... but the only thing that upsets me is the political rhetoric- when the convention was going on (and all the rest of the time too) they'd just go on and on about how they wished they were out there protesting too and how Rebublicans are the spawn of Satan. I'm not a Republican, but I'm not a Democrat, and it's not so much that I wish they'd keep their opinions to themselves... it's the assumption that everyone agrees with them. I cannot voice any opinion there because they make it very clear every day that anyone who disagrees with them is stupid and bigoted and not anyone they could be friends with... so I have to keep my mouth shut.

exactly, it's the assumptions that piss me off!!! i dont agree with the democrats 100%, but i dont agree with the republicans either, and for people to assume that everyone around them agrees with them is just rude.

i just grit my teeth and do my code.

I've found that it's just...not wise to bring up politics at work. You get in this rapport with people and everyone gets along and they start to assume that everyone must feel the same in that realm. There's a complacency bred by being on the same track in the job realm that makes people think that they'll just automatically get nods and agreement when expressing their political views.

Even worse is discussing religion. They start talking about that here sometimes when we're slow on work and hanging out and people make assumptions that everyone agrees and these big debates spring up. Soemone will just say something all catholic-bashing (not hostile, but ignorant), and just assume there are no devout catholics around...that sort of stuff.

I just...try to keep anything that would generate emotional response out of the workplace. It can get ugly.

yep, we get that too. my workplace is mostly christian, with the exception of my boyfriend and myself, and the guy from Jordan.

I don't object to talking politics in the office, in fact I think it is important to discuss politics, that's how you get exposed to different points of views. The trick is to not let it get nasty.

Now of course having said that I hate it when my officemate, a great guy otherwise, brings up certain issues, like abortion. We've had our say, we know we totally disagree and I would really not have to go through it again. Same for religion, he is shocked that I'm an atheist. I hope that does some good though as he otherwise likes me and perhaps he'll realize that atheists can be good moral people.

I think it's important to discuss politics with people too. I just don't think it should happen in the workplace. Perhaps we have different views on this as you work in an academic setting and I work in a tech/corporate setting. It probably is stimulating in an academic place. Here, it just gets in the way of things.

If you make friendships with coworkers and want to talk about important things outside work, awesome! :)� It's just hard to maintain it in an environment like this. It's impossible to guarantee it won't get nasty. I've seen discussions that cause some hard feelings here, like when someone is shocked by something they find morally reprehensible coming from someone else's mouth...and they subsequently have a strained working relationship. Which hinders us all. One would like to say they should just separate their feelings from the job, but it's hard to do once the can is opened. So I figure, separate your feelings from the job before the passionate debate starts at all. :)

Hear hear!

At the end of a short lecture, I got asked the age-old question "Are there any questions?" and I responded with my age old response "What is the meaning of life?" and that lead on to a 3 minute ramble on religion, those pesky god and jesus fellows, and all that stuff. Just made me squirm in my seat.

Life is like a sewer, you get out of it what you put into it.

Now you don't have to ask that again.

What kind of office to you work in? Whatever it is I'm guessing there are some hard core democrats who don't feel free to say so.

I know we have the opposite here. It's pretty hardcore Democrat in general and I get uncomfortable because I'm sure there are some Republicans (or whatever) in our midst who feel like they can't speak up but also can't be free of the rhetoric, you know? And I am a liberal/Democrat...I agree with the majority here. But I don't agree with their bringing it in here and possibly alienating colleagues.

I also work in a pretty much 95% democrat environment and I think there is one employee who never says anything because she's likely more conservative. It's certainly not a really liberal or activist type of democrat, though.

My department is really cool for conversation.� Someone was actually fired because they were too uptight.� I work in a high stress sales environment, and those of us on the phones need to let off steam without doing it at our customers.� We pull pranks and stuff on each other all the time, too.

One of my associates has a tendancy to shoot elastics at me at random times, sometimes in bunches, other times to nip my ear (we all have scale rulers, seeing as we do roofing and floor layouts when not on the phone, and man are those things great launchers!)� In any case, he shot a large chunk of them at me one day and I was in the midst of picking them up and aiming to fire when the VP of the company walks in and stands next to my associate.� I of course no longer amde it look like I was gong to fire, but then she asks "What are you doing, Brian?"� So I told her "Matt shot all these at me at once...now I'm going to get him back!"� She thought for a second and said "Oh...okay...just don't hit him in the head."

most of our sales team keeps their cell phones on vibrate. it's not a policy or anything, but they get a *lot* of calls on their cells and it would just get crazy around here if they werent on vibrate.

except. for ONE GUY. who has. THE MOST ANNOYING RINGTONE EVER. and then when he answers the phone he YELLS.

"OH HI BOB!!!! GOOD! YEAH! HOW ARE YOU DOING?? GREAAAT!"

*kill*

Ugh.
Anyone who doesn't keep their phone on vibrate should be shot.

Mine's not on vibrate, but it sounds like a normal ring and it's no louder than my desk phone. :)

Mine's probably pretty loud compared to some, but like yours, it's a normal ring, not a melody. Much less annoying, at least to me.

-- Pauley

Well, if you leave it on the ringer in public... instead of vibrate, then, sorry... you need to be shot.
*shrugs*

nothing we can do about that.

would you like it in your right or left temple?

when I'm in the office, or in a movie theater, or some such, yes, it goes on vibrate. when I'm out and about elsewhere, it's louder. it's quickly silenced when it goes off if I've got it on me.

I'm sorry, no, I don't need to be shot, thankyouverymuch.

-- Pauley

But, you do.
Your phone rings in public... that's up there with flash-only websites, spam, and popup ads.

:D

*sigh* whatever. at least it sounds like a phone, and not a jukebox.

-- Pauley

Alright, I'll give you that.... you'll be at a SLIGHTLY higher circle of hell... perhaps one step up.

Those midi rings are just.... oh man.. they need to die.

:D

my phone doesn't do midi rings, but someday I will have one that will, and then... Oh then... I will program it to ring Kign of Spain. Muahahahahahahahah

I don't agree. When I'm in the office, and it's no louder than my work phone, how is that a problem? You wouldn't shoot me for getting a call on my work phone, would you? It's called, "the freakin' reason to have a phone...to be available."

And in public, like in a store...I have it fairly quiet but on vibrate it does me no good and I may miss an important call. I often don't have pockets or anywhere to clip a clippy, so it's in my purse. I do not feel vibrations through there.

Mind you, I very rarely get calls. If I do, it's because it's important and thus the reason I need t be reachable in the first place.

I do agree that there needs to be a level of etiquette and some people are extremely rude about their phone usage, but I think your way is pretty rigid and unreasonable. :)

Hmmm.....
I guess I didn't take into account the "purse" aspect....

It just drives me nuts when people have a cell phone clipped to their damned belt and it's RINGING.

That was my point... *wookie noise*

That's exactly my thing.� To a tee.�

i don't at home, because i use unique ring tones to determine whether or not i should even get up to get it :D but @ work i keep it on vibrate, and in restaurants, etc. in the car or at home, i use the ringtones.

well, that's kinda what I meant.

I mean, I use a ringer at home, since I don't have my phone on me... but in public, ALWAYS vibrate.

when I'm walking around doing things, I set mine on vibrate then ring. often when I'm walking, I can't feel it vibrate.

if I told you that my main ringtone was bnl, you'd probably shoot me.

oops.

We all know the real reason you have it vibrate. Do I need to spell it out?

i have it on vibrate at school or the cinema, but otherwise i have to have it on noise, or i don't know when someone's calling me. so there.

I will note that you're evil and i can't read this part of the thread without continuing with "..that guy who wrote that book about the bell curve"

i concur that i am evil.

the second part is your own problem.

Great, Now I'm gonna do it.